St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1887-02-05
". q. kENTZEL, Edito,
COVINGTON, ST. TAMMANY PARISH, FEBRUARY 1881

s. One device which is veritable
eye-saver is the protection of the ewes
against the direct morning light on
waking. How few people think Of this,
or at least how few arrange their bed
rooms so as to provide for it. l have
slept and walked in good many differ
en-; countries; but it is very seldom that
! have found the beds rightly placed in
this respect. As rule. the mornin.
light glares into the sleeper's eyes on
waking. Perhaps this position of the
body at night is survival of some
earlier time when the dangers of war,
or. later. the needs of agriculture, made
It necessary to awake with the earliest
light. But it need scarcely be said that the
stress Of the morning light is trial to
the eyes, and one which they should be
spared when possible. The use of bed
curtains. still in Europe, but compara-
lively rare in our country, was intend
ed to guard the sleeper from this annoy
ance; but they cut off the air to such a
degree that they are very properly dis
used among us
l have referred to this rule rs hard
one to follow. and indeed it NAV seem
to propose no less than a revolutionary
measure in suggesting that the beds
which face the light should he turned
the other way. Indeed it is always
feasible, and am the last person in the
world to urge any thing that should
bring confusion upon the housekeeper
But one can sometimes make the bed.
and sleep i'm it, with the head turned
away from the light. even though the
stringent rules of housekeeping forbid
the moving Of the bedstead itself And
when the sleeper's head can not he
turned away, a screen may be placed
Abetween the bed and the window.
6. Don't read in bed. 1t is an indis-
cfetiOn, to give it the mildest name. 1t
strains the eyes, it curtails the hours of
rest-and most of us do not sleep
cnough-and once in while it sets the
house a-fire. Bed is the place for sleep
before any thing else, and not primarily
the place for pursuing intellectual cult
ure.
II. COMING TO sPECTACLEs.
When / was boy used to envy the
wearcrs of spectacles; they gave sort
distinction. l thought. even to some
commonplace faces. remember that
l looked forward with certain expect
ancy to the time when in the order of
nature. l should be promoted to the use
and enjoyment Of glasses.
Well, / am using them now. and not
with that unmixed delight that cx-
pectcd in them. find that they make
me out older than / was; and l learn
that while atgmenting years are sup
posea to bring wisdom. which is all
very well. that there are still certain
offsets to the value of au~menting
years. Perhaps one would just rs soon
be ten years younger again, and avoid
some Of his mistakes, even if one had to
forego the dignity of spectacles; and
yet, when they are reSor.ed to Mt the
right time. and properly chosen. what
delight they are, what comfort. More
than this. they are one of the nccessi-
ties of civilization. We could spare
and railroads almost rs soon
as spectaclcs. Imagine the stoppage of
work in almost every department Of life
that would follow the suppression of
Oculists and opticians!
Their services, on the contrary, are
more and more in demand.
Many children are found i'm need of
them; in Germany seventeen per cent. |
out of ten thousand school children |
were found to have trouble with their |
eyes. BY the age Of forty ut least half |
Of the people i'm our community require |
TO begin with weak glasses of one sort |
Or another. and how reluctantly they |
ofto,, locr;ns D,n,,Io v-h<, mould ss,,,al.,
no bones' Of wearing ear-trumpets or
(becauscl lameness and deafness
can not be hiddcn) will stoutly resist the
coming to spectacles. Nothing amuses
me more, in a quiet way, than to OBJ
serve the reluctance, the coyness. the
with which my friends
lefer their privilege, .'dreading. tho
wishing. to be near it," and long put
ing off their comfort before they come
rankly to the luxury of glasses. Peo-
Die will put it off for two or three years,
md suffer all the time. One of my
riends is now going through the proc
IS. He has procured his glasses; on
occasions he brings them out in a very
Iuict way; he puts them on almost
urtively, and how modestly and vet
peedily they slip off again and into a
pecially-provided pocket! But they
'ring him back the clear sight Of child
lood; he enjoys them, and really he
an not do without them for reading
inc print; and soon he will use them Us
as his telephone.
How shall we select our glasses? We
ave two classes of advisers i'm this
natter; their names are somewhat SINH
ar. but their functions are
widely different. We have the
culist or ophthalmic surgeon, a
rained specialist in all that con-
erns the eve and its conditions of
ealth and Of disease; and we have the
ptician, who may he more or less in
Ormed in the science of the eye. but
those business is to sell glasses. Which
I the two shall we consult?
The Optician, in his business of selling
lasses. will often have picked up more
han little knowledge Of the ordinary
equirements of eyes that need his help.
Whether you need '.near-sighted' or
glass;" whether al strong
+ a weak pair of lenses,-this he can
tell. But if the case is any
hing out of the orlinary,-if it is 4
uestion of unequal vision in the two
YES, or of a stigmatism. or Of trouble
'ith the optic nerve, or of any one of q
core of complaints which though indi-
uncommon, vet constitute in
le total no small part of the total per-
entage or chance of the ailments Of .
le eye-then the oculist, not the opti-
ian. is the one to pronounce upon the
ase Here the op9cian is rs likely to \
o wrong as right; and mistake made ,